Summer sale...

I admit it, I am officially obsessed with buying baby clothes. I was pretty bad before Kitty arrived but now it has reached new heights. My daughter has a better wardrobe than me!

She was bought so many beautiful things and is also lucky to have an older cousin who has a wonderful set of clothes that are regularly passed on. We love Baby Gap, John Lewis, Petit Bateau and I've bought quite a few things on eBay - they all look brand new. I've also been lucky to pick up a couple of brilliant finds in our local charity shops.

My favourite shop at the moment though is Marks & Spencer. They've currently got a sale on and I've  snapped up these beauties ready for next year.  Without intending to I have picked out a colour palette and I really like the way that all the items work together.

So obsessed am I that I have started a series on Instagram called #WHATKITTYWORE that has almost daily updates of her outfits. Join in, it's fun!

The longest 20 weeks...

I loved being pregnant - loved the way I felt, my bump, feeling Kitty move inside me. When we went for our 20 week scan I wasn't nervous, I was simply excited and looking forward to seeing our little one again.

The sonographer seemed distracted as she was performing the scan but her machine wasn't working properly so I assumed that was the problem. When she finished our scan she said "Well, we have a problem here", and explained that she could see fluid on the baby's chest. She went to get a colleague who repeated the scan and told us (a little more sympathetically) that we had a very poorly baby but that she couldn't tell us any more. We were given an appointment to see the consultant the next day.

The consultant at Winchester confirmed what the sonographers had seen, he could't see the heart and lungs well enough to see if they were developing properly. He made us an appointment to see a specialist consultant at Princess Anne in Southampton but told us to prepare ourselves for the worst.

That weekend was the longest and most awful two days. I cried almost constantly, couldn't eat, couldn't sleep and felt as if it were all my fault, as if I'd let my baby down.

On Monday morning at 9am we met our consultant Mr Howe. We spent the morning with him, having lots of tests and talking through what our options were. He recommended that we had an amniocentesis to try and discover what was causing the build up of fluid, at the same time he removed the fluid from the baby's chest. We went home exhausted both physically and emotionally. Our next appointment would be on Friday and we'd see what effect removing the fluid had made, we were warned that in all probability it would have returned. 

I went back to work on the Wednesday as I needed to keep busy and couldn't stay at home any longer. Friday arrived and our next appointment, the scan showed that the fluid hadn't returned and that the heart and lungs appeared to be developing normally. There was fluid on the baby's tummy but at present that wasn't presenting a risk.

The next week our test results came back - all normal. There was no reason that the team could find that explained what was happening.

And this was how it continued for the next 20 weeks. I had check up appointments every week after that and gradually the fluid on the tummy started to lessen until the scan we had the day before she was born where it had disappeared completely.

Thinking back to it now I can't believe how we kept going. We existed on a week to week basis, waiting for the next appointment, waiting to see how our little one was doing. It was hard to enjoy being pregnant in the same way as I had before and I feel so sad about that.

Thanks to the amazing team at Princess Anne and out little fighter we now have a beautiful little girl who has no idea what she put her Mummy & Daddy through!

Quattro anni fa...

Four years ago today. This year there are three of us celebrating our anniversary.

Happy Anniversary Mr E - you're the best.

I've got so much to tell you...

Well it has been 10 months since I managed to write anything on this poor, neglected blog of mine but I do have a good reason.  A very good reason.

And here she is.

Allow me to introduce Kitty Anne Elliman, born 11th June.

I found out I was pregnant shortly after my last post, then work went into silly season and I was trying to keep up, along with trying to keep my news secret. Then came Christmas and then our 20 week scan and then everything changed.

I will write a separate post about what happened and our journey, but the good news is that it has a happy ending. 

I also promise to start writing more regularly and not to abandon you for so long again!

Where does the time go...

It has been a shameful 5 weeks since I last wrote anything, I really need to do something about my lack of posts.  Any ideas?

Still, lots has happened.  I'll do a quick round up and then get back to proper posts as soon as I can.

We got a new puppy, this Ralph.  He is trouble with a capital T.

Discovering a new walk through silvered trees.

Using my new sewing machine and making my first cushion.

Dressing up for a friend's wedding.

There's so much more but I'll save that for another day, and not in 5 weeks time I promise!

One, two, three..

Three years today, and I am as happy now as I was then.

DIY - a rather ugly table gets an update

This little desk found its way to me through fortunate coincidence.  I was looking for a desk for my study and had trawled eBay, stalked Freecycle but all to no avail.  Mr E & I were driving past our local church when I noticed a furniture sale, I persuaded him to stop and let me have a little look and there it was.  Unloved, an ugly colour but the right size, a pretty shape and only £15.  

I had hoped that I'd be able to strip off the original varnish and restore the wood, however after a vigorous afternoon spent with Nitromorse and steel wool it seemed that the wood underneath wasn't up to much.  Painting it was then.  I didn't really fancy stripping off the rest of the varnish so decided to try chalk paint.  It alleged that you could paint over anything - no need to sand, no need to undercoat.

I had read so many rave reviews of the paint that I was expecting to fall in love with it instantly.  To be honest I didn't really like it that much.  It was super thick and rather like painting with cream cheese.  Still it did the job! It's a little more shabby chic than I was hoping for but all in all I am pretty pleased.

I changed the handles for some Laura Ashley glass ones that I picked up in the charity shop and lined the drawers with some scented papers.

I've added a rather fetching pen pot and letter rack and it all looks lovely.